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Johnson Matthey
AS/RS Case Study
Johnson Matthey, a specialty chemicals company and world leader in advanced materials technology, recently selected Westfalia Technologies, a leading provider of material handling and logistics solutions, to supply a storage retrieval machine (SRM) and warehouse management system (WMS) for its Wayne, Pa. facility.
The installation was completed for Johnson Matthey’s Environmental Catalysts and Technologies (ECT) business unit, which manufactures catalysts for automobile emissions control and the reduction of emissions from industrial processes. ECT also comprises Johnson Matthey’s global autocatalyst, heavy duty diesel and stationary source emissions control businesses.
System Features:
- AS/RS transports trays of diesel soot filler catalyst
- Savanna.NET® Warehouse Management System
The Johnson Matthey installation is the first application of Westfalia’s modular management software Version 4: Savanna.NET in the U.S automotive industry. Construction began in October 2005 and was completed in the first quarter of 2006.
According to John Schmiesing, project manager for Westfalia Technologies, Inc., both the SRM and WMS are fully integrated into the production line material handling sector, and were installed concurrently to the production line. The SRM stands 22 feet high, and runs horizontally at a rate of 394 feet per minute and vertically at 164 feet per minute.
In a typical operation, trays are loaded robotically, transported to the processing area, stored in one of fourteen ovens for curing, and retrieved by the ASRS. A fixed number of trays are assigned to transport product between loading, processing, unloading and buffer zones, although the actual number of trays utilized will vary with the amount of product required for each application. Lot changes require the system to adjust to any reconfiguration and move empty (or unused) trays into buffer racks, where they are housed.
The line produces a diesel soot filter catalyst in conjunction with the EPA’s Highway Diesel Rule, which mandates a 90 percent decrease of mobile source air toxins from heavy-duty highway vehicles by model year 2007. Schmeising explained, “Physically, the SRM was the best fit for the application, for the various size restrictions of the production space, and for tasks which are too demanding to perform on a consistent basis. On the management side, the WMS was applied to offer full control, including the ability to track the exact location of product at all times. Johnson Matthey and Westfalia are committed to both production efficiency and environmental responsibility.”
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